Leng Yue immediately straightened her posture, puffing out her chest and raising her head. "The Imperial Concubine has taken me as her master!"
The good master Chu Chu had been longing for... was her?!
Right, Chu Chu had never mentioned whether the master she'd apprenticed herself to was male or female...
In his momentary confusion, he'd only remembered the camp full of grown men, completely forgetting about this girl Leng Yue...
She had clearly said she wanted to learn to be like Leng Yue. If she wasn't apprenticing to Leng Yue, then who else could it be?!
He had lost his composure, hadn't even dared to investigate, just buried his head in sorrow and jealousy, and nearly wasted away half his life in the process. This time, he had truly disgraced eight generations of ancestors...
Xiao Jin Yu didn't know whether to feel ashamed or happy, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks. "When did this happen?"
"Just... yesterday. I saw the Imperial Concubine run out of the sleeping tent, squatting to the side crying pitifully, so I asked her what was wrong... I told her all about Jing Yi and me growing up together, and she immediately wanted to come back and apologize to you," Leng Yue silently retreated half a step back, putting herself at a distance Xiao Jin Yu definitely couldn't reach from the bed. "I told her it wasn't fair for only her to be jealous of you, that you should taste some jealousy too..."
Xiao Jin Yu instantly felt the urge to commit murder. Unfortunately, he didn't even have the strength to get out of bed at the moment, and could only glare at her with knife-sharp eyes. "So... you took her as your apprentice to teach her how to anger me?"
Leng Yue grinned like a blooming flower. "Well, I do have plenty of combat experience..."
"Leng Yue!"
"It was Lai Jing Yi! Jing Yi made me do it!"
Xiao Jin Yu could clearly feel the blood vessels on his forehead throbbing and swelling. These two demons sent by the Bodhisattva Guanyin...
"How about..." Leng Yue blinked her beautiful eyes at the fuming Xiao Jin Yu, her innocent smile looking exactly like it was carved from the same mold as Jing Yi's. "Wang Ye, let me roast you a plump, tender rabbit as apology, alright?"
Having already made a complete fool of himself, what else could he say but alright...
Xiao Jin Yu gave her an unceremonious roll of the eyes, just like he would to Jing Yi. "Double portion."
"Coming right up!"
With his mind at ease, Xiao Jin Yu soon fell into a deep sleep. In his dreams, he felt someone holding his body, kissing him with varying intensity. Xiao Jin Yu didn't even want to move his eyelids, simply reaching out to pull his rediscovered happiness into his embrace.
"Wang Ye, you're awake?"
"No... keep kissing me, don't stop..."
"Alright."
One soft yet passionate kiss after another carefully landed on his fever-weakened body. Those warm, soft hands wandered restlessly as they always had, like a long nightmare had finally come to an end. Even just holding her peacefully felt like a luxurious happiness.
Especially since she still hadn't abandoned him...
"Chu Chu..."
"Hmm?"
"Don't bully me anymore..."
He finally understood: whenever he faced her in battle, both his mind and body would be powerless to resist, completely at her mercy.
"Hmm... just a little bit of bullying, okay?"
"No."
"Just a tiny little bit."
"No."
Chu Chu rubbed against him in his arms like a mischievous cat, her naughty little hands tickling his waist, her movements pitiful. "Wang Ye..."Xiao Jin Yu was so tickled by her that his entire body went limp, the last bit of his strength melting away. Pinned down by her, he couldn't move at all and had no choice but to surrender. "Alright, alright... as you wish, everything as you wish..."
"I knew you were the best!" Only then did Chu Chu feel satisfied, hugging him tightly and nestling into his embrace. "I truly know how wonderful you are... I would never bully you!"
"Weren't you just bullying me a moment ago..."
Chu Chu blinked, her small hand creeping up to his waist again. "Was I?"
"No, no..."
Unable to resist, Chu Chu planted a kiss on Xiao Jin Yu's flustered, flushed face. "Wang Ye, Shifu was right—you've gotten so much better you don't even remember your own surname!"
Xiao Jin Yu couldn't help but feel this didn't sound like praise...
"Wang Ye, I promise I'll study hard under Shifu from now on and become as skilled as her!"
"Don't... you're perfect just as you are," Xiao Jin Yu added with utmost sincerity, "Really."
If she continued learning from Leng Yue, life would become unbearable...
Chu Chu frowned in dilemma, mumbling, "Shifu also said she'd teach me a new set of massage techniques... If you don't want me to learn, then forget it."
"You can learn that."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Mmm..." Chu Chu lay obediently in his arms, hesitating for a moment before saying, "Wang Ye, I want to confess a mistake to you."
"Hmm?"
Aside from nearly scaring him to death, what else had she done...
"I think I made a mistake in the last corpse examination... I need to reexamine it."
"Why was it wrong?"
Chu Chu buried her head in his chest. "I was only thinking about how you didn't like me anymore..."
Xiao Jin Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry—he couldn't blame her for that, as he had been the same. "How did you realize it was wrong?"
"At the time, it looked like suicide to me. But later, Shifu told me she knew one of them—just two days before dying, he had asked her to deliver something to his beloved. Then I thought it might not be suicide, that I might have made a mistake... Shifu also said all three seemed to be wounded soldiers; she'd seen them when helping at the medical tent. I need to take a closer look to see if there were other injuries I missed."
Xiao Jin Yu nodded slightly, but before he could say "Alright," he suddenly realized something was amiss. "Wounded soldiers?"
"Yes, but their injuries weren't serious."
Xiao Jin Yu's heart sank. Amid all the commotion, he had neglected the most critical matter.
"Chu Chu, help me up..."
"You haven't taken your medicine yet. Where are you going?"
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